


Queen of My Heart (Long May She Rain)

by letters2the0



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: hp_drizzle, Cunning Use of Umbrellas, F/M, HP Drizzle Fest 2020, Is it one-sided pining if both parties think they're unrequited?, Libraries, Or two-sided dumbassery?, Rain, asking the real questions around here, dramione - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25910452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letters2the0/pseuds/letters2the0
Summary: Draco likes Granger.Granger likes books.This could be useful.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 36
Kudos: 147
Collections: HP Drizzle Fest 2020





	Queen of My Heart (Long May She Rain)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to HP Drizzle fest for putting this on, and thanks to the Dramione writer who lovingly bullied me into signing up! ;) I'd name names, but that might give away the surprise! And to my beta, also nameless, but who is sitting, somewhere far, smirking. Cheers, mate.
> 
> The prompt for this fic was #6: "It's raining," "WHAT?!"

_Three months before_

They were standing outside the Ministry under Draco’s umbrella while Granger cradled that silly stack of stapled sheets like season tickets to the Harpies. 

“Granger,” he drawled while scanning the cars. “It’s been a quarter of an hour. Let’s go back inside.”

“But the Nigerian delegation will be here any minute,” she said while biting her lip. “And if they come and I’m not here, we’ll have an _international fiasco_ on our hands! This is the only extant copy!” 

Draco huffed. “Granger, they’re late, it’s their bloody fault, they’re not going to think you stole their book,” he said with a scornful side glance. 

“But—” Granger started anxiously.

Draco whipped around and shoved her back from the street corner, pinning her to his chest while throwing up his cape over her like a hippogriff’s wing. The bus screeching through the intersection sent up a wave of water that slammed into the back of Draco’s formerly-immaculate hair. When a moment had passed, Draco drew back with a long-suffering sigh and made to brush his hands across his legs casually off his pants, but only got himself more wet. 

Damn.

Granger was trembling, which Draco thought was overreacting a bit. _He_ was the poncy fashion plate, and even he could admit it was just water. 

“Alright there, Granger?” he said coolly while clinically noting the flush spreading over her face and the way it charged the warmth in her eyes to something electric. He stepped closer to objectively assess. 

“You saved the book,” she said breathlessly.

She kissed him. 

Not on the cheek. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Present Day_

Draco stood outside Flourish and Blotts, glaring at it with fierce intent. 

_What if a fire happened?_

He’d save everything if he was standing right here. He’d dash in, pull off a brilliant multi-level Aguamenti charm to protect even the highest shelves, and save the bookstore cat for good measure.

_My hero._

He stood right there.

For three hours.

_What if I **set** a fire and then saved the books **from the fire I set?**_

Frankly a genius move given the parameters, but Granger _was_ the Brightest Witch of their Age. She had a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense when it came to books. She’d probably do some kind of replaying magic no one had heard of in centuries, logic her way down to the conclusion, and ruthlessly chuck him in Azkaban the same way she kept inconvenient people in jars.

_Merlin, that is so hot._

He apparated home with a swirl on the spot worthy of Severus before anyone could see his blush.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco sidled closer to the shelf and surreptitiously put his hand out—

Alarms blared and grew louder with every horn. Red, orange, and blue lights flickered in waves across the room, causing him to blink madly before rushing for the door. He managed to sprint down another hallway before forcing a strut, just in time for the DMLE flunkies to turn the corner. 

“Malfoy! We need backup, there’s—” 

“Haven’t the time, sorry Rawlins,” Draco said with a scowl.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

He pulled another book off the shelf and set it on the table. The pile teetered over with a soft thump. 

“I hope that’s not your great-great-great-grandfather’s journal and the sole surviving eyewitness account of an Obscurial attack that’s crumpled on the floor.”

Draco hurriedly snatched the book off of the carpet. 

“Darling,” Narcissa said as she sashayed closer to Draco’s hoard. Only peasants needed commas, question marks, and exclamation points. Pureblooded mothers could turn a simple address into an Auror-worthy interrogation. 

“Did you know, Mother,” Draco said while furiously straightening up the stack of books. “There’s a charm Miss Granger taught me to find out which books have not been checked out for use in ten, twenty, and thirty year increments—” 

“No one else will read them, Draco,” his mother said. “They’re rare. Sometimes it’s due to money, and sometimes it’s due to lack of actual interest. The Ottery St. Catchpole magical library is not interested. Put them back.”

Draco obeyed as fast as decorously possible.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another man stepped up to the counter, and Draco’s eyes narrowed. This one looked positively shifty. 

“I’ll see your card, please?” the woman asked. The man fumbled it out of his wallet and placed it on top of his books. The woman opened up the book and frowned. 

“This is overdue, sir,” she said with a conciliatory tone. 

_Oh, yes._

The man winced and started turning out his pockets. After sorting through his change painfully slow, he placed down a handful of coins that were clearly, by the woman’s expression, not enough.

_I’ve got you now, arse._

“Sir—” she began.

“I’ll have the rest next time,” he said earnestly. “I’m good for it.”

She wavered and then smiled. “Next time,” she said while stamping the books. 

Draco silently moved from the bookshelf facing circulation to the exit. He quickly stepped outside and hid behind a very large bush that had been decorating a different part of the car park that morning. 

The ingrate walked past him. Or tried to. It was hard to walk past a furious Draco Malfoy who was seething with anger. 

“Listen here, wanker,” he said, pointing a finger at the man’s chest. The older man swiftly dropped his books and held his hands up in horror. “I haven’t got any money, I just gave it to—” 

“I _know_ you don’t have any money, you useless, thieving cad,” Draco hissed. “You would have given it to the librarian. Wouldn’t you?”

The man shook and his eyes widened, looking back at the library in confusion. 

“ _Wouldn’t you?_ ” Draco roared. The man yelped and nodded furiously. 

“So you’re going to go home,” Draco said poisonously. “And you’re going to fish in the coin jar—forget it, you’re going to take your _entire coin jar_ and just come back, and you’re going to give it to—”

“Draco?” Harry asked.

“No, the library,” Draco said. His head snapped around. “Potter?”

Harry tilted his head, looked between Draco and the quivering man who was slowly backing towards the bush.

“Yeah,” Harry said.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You can understand why he’s concerned.”

“No Granger, I can’t! A man is allowed to help his local library! They lose money every year, and a man-to-man discussion about personal responsibility—”

Granger crossed her arms and smirked. Draco wanted to wipe that grin off her face.

With his mouth.

_Dammit._

“Sounded more like _mano a mano_ , the way Harry told it,” Granger said. Draco made a show of checking the sky and transfiguring his cape into an umbrella while sniffing. 

“Not a rebuttal,” Granger said, while he fussed with his wand, changing the color to a deep emerald green. “And Ron said your mother contacted him? Donated a hundred galleons on the condition that his library was not to accept any books from you, now or ever?” 

Draco threw his head back and groaned. 

“That wouldn’t have anything to do with—” she stopped herself, a tiny grin flitting around her mouth, “my…observations earlier this summer that Ron’s traveling library was a marvelous idea, but poorly stocked for the—”

“Average personal researcher,” Draco finished while rolling his eyes. “Plenty of robe-rippers, children’s lit, and the occasional textbook, but nothing for—”

“The stay-at-home witch continuing her education in the evenings, or the part-time apprentice student, yes,” Granger completed while looking at Draco thoughtfully. He sighed. 

Granger smiled and cocked her head. “Shaking down the elderly for library fines?” She laughed, and Draco tried not to flush. “Donating materials to the library _is_ sweet, and I’m flattered that you remember—”

“But that wasn’t the first idea,” Draco blurted out. He didn’t know why he was alluding to this. It had been a stupid idea, it didn’t work, and could potentially lose him his job and all job-seeking opportunities for the rest of his magically-enhanced life if anyone found out. He was not going to tell anybody.

Granger looked at him. 

“ItriedtostealatimeturnertosavethelibraryofAlexandria," he blurted out. Hermione stared at him. Draco could feel himself blushing and hung his head. "And....reintroduce lost classics texts to the timeline, or failing that, bringing them back to study if they had too much affect on scholastic work through the centuries. That was what I _really_ wanted to do for you before I almost got caught and realized that supporting my local libraries on the regional level is how I could introduce sustainable and lasting change that would directly affect my community." He sighed and placed his hands over his eyes. He didn't want to see Hermione's expression when she realized how pitifully his plans had gone awry.

“Merlin, that is so hot.”

“What?” Draco asked. Granger was staring at him with wide, glassy eyes and her cheeks, suddenly pink, went into full bloom. 

“Draco,” Granger said. 

He looked again. Granger’s voice always sounded serious unless you paid attention to how her eyes crinkled in amusement at the corners. 

Draco paid attention. 

“Yes,” he said. 

“You do realize that I am one of the three Saviors of the Wizarding World,” she said as if one was commenting on the weather outside. 

Although the weather did deserve commenting. The sky was in turmoil and, ever the opportunist, Draco popped his umbrella while subtly stepping closer. _Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain,_ he prayed to Salazar and his infinite cunning. 

Perhaps this wasn’t the end of their mutual respect. Well, his self-respect, but Granger didn’t seem embarrassed or alarmed to be near him as the raindrops began to fall. She naturally shuffled into the close circle of the umbrella, her sleeves touching his. 

Draco refused to smirk. If he gave the game away, Salazar might take it back in disappointment. 

“I like to save things,” Granger said as if Draco hadn’t entirely scrapped his parent’s casual atheism in a moment of need and was rebuilding a system of checks and balances with his god as they spoke.

“Sure,” Draco said. “You liked it when I saved the book.”

Granger nodded. “And when you saved Harry, by lying that you didn’t know him. But—” Draco made to interrupt, but she cut him off. “But most of all, I like how you’ve been saving yourself.”

Some distant part of Draco’s brain wondered if he had been struck by lightning. But Granger wasn’t done talking. Surely she’d stop and heal him if he was crisping on the spot?

“It’s easy to look at someone else and know what they need, do all the steps, save _them_ ,” she said firmly. “Makes you feel good. And everyone’s problems seem so simple when you’re standing on the fence and yelling out what they ought to do.” 

Draco faintly thought about Quidditch, and that one football match he went to with Blaise, and most of all his trial.

“It’s a lot harder to save yourself,” Granger said earnestly, putting a hand on the arm holding the umbrella. Rain was starting to blow sideways and Draco shivered but did not move. 

“Meeting your mother for tea….seeing Harry’s therapist once a week…donating Malfoy money to war charities and working at the Ministry without giving a rat’s ass about your boss’s baiting…that’s, that’s saving yourself. And I love it.”

Draco stared. “You love what?”

Granger laughed a bit desperately and looked away. “That you’re—well, you.” 

Draco reconsidered the lightning theory while Granger shyly looked back at him again, rubbing her hands over her arms. Cold? Was she cold? Draco was aware that his entire backside was wet because he was holding the center of the umbrella over Granger, but wanted to adjust his collar for steam coming out. 

“So you can still save things,” Granger said suddenly, her cheeks gloriously pink again. Draco leaned in closer to make sure he was hearing this right, and noticed that she seemed to be leaning in closer too. 

“Save me a dance at the next Ministry ball,” she said, shifting her feet. “And save some room for dessert maybe….” Her eyes darted away before she looked at him again in earnest. “Friday night?” 

“I’ll save the date,” Draco promised without moving a muscle.

“Then save your breath,” she said with a radiant smile, “and kiss me.”

Draco dropped the umbrella. Granger’s hands flew to his shoulders. He pressed back the hair from her temples lovingly, watching her eyes glimmer while he leaned in…..

The rain deluged. 

After a few minutes, Draco drew back. “It’s raining,” he said, trying to keep a smile off his face.

“What?” Hermione said. She tossed her head, and her soaked hair fell limply over her shoulders. “I hadn’t noticed,” she said with a grin. Draco laughed and pulled her in again. 

Leave it to her to save the day.


End file.
